Digital payments? Even in Gujarat's business capital post offices don't have UPI payment system

By Rajiv Shah

The Modi government may take credit for popularizing Unified Payments Interface (UPI) system cross India, originally conceptualized under the UPA government by Nandan Nilekani, former CEO of Infosys, who headed a committee that developed a framework for digital payments in India.

Launched in 2016 by the BJP-led government after the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) -- a Reserve Bank of India (RBI) arm,which designed it -- it is known to have become particularly popular during the Covid phase, when even the touch of a rupee note was believed to be a vehicle to spread the deadly disease.

However, ironically, in Modi's home state, Gujarat, where private shop keepers, including many thelevalas, use UPI as the convenient method to accept payments, several government offices only prefer cash. My recent visit to the post office near the Vejalpur bus stop in Ahmedabad suggested that they don't keep UPI facility for payments even now, and I find, the same is the case with most post offices across the state, even India.

I usually do not visit post offices, except for sending some speedposts. The Indian post office offers the cheapest way to send posts, which, I find, reach important cities, including Delhi, in two to three days.

However, I must always carry cash, that too the exact amount to be paid for speedpost. If you offer a Rs 500 note for a Rs 41 payment, the staff would say they don't have change. You must provide a smaller denomination and Re 1 to match the exact payment, otherwise they will express their inability to process the post.

Sources tell me, while some post offices may have a UPI payment option, it is not widely available across all locations, and "technical issues" are cited as the reason for refusing to accept UPI payments.

According to a post office source, past attempts to implement UPI payments in post offices have faced issues with static QR codes, leading to glitches and customer frustration. The India Post Payment Bank's "DakPay" app provides for UPI functionality, but it has not been implemented for reasons best known to the Government of India officials. A Google Play search for the app suggests, many people find the app as unusable.

Though the India Post may have moved with time , adding an array of services beyond stamps and Speed Post, such as Aadhaar card updates, small savings schemes, life insurance schemes and many more, time seems to stand still in the post of offices continuing to function in old, dilapidated structures.

Located at the dead end of a residential society in a room repaired building, very dark inside, having little space for staff to operate freely, at the post office in Vejalpur, Ahmedabad, I found, people scrambling for coins to pay the exact amount.

Not that the India Post did not use the UPI system in the past. During the Covid phase, it did roll out UPI using what is called static QR technology for transactions, but following allegedly frequent glitches, it decided to withdraw it. Later, it switched from the static to the dynamic QR code technology, but customers find it hasn't been implemented, either.

The reason cited is lack of monetary support for implementing the system as also refusal to train staff on how to operate it. An internet search suggests that this is not only true of Ahmedabad but even such top IT hubs like Bengaluru and Pune.

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